based on newly declassified CIA documents from the Office of Strategic Survey, declassified wartime papers of the Vatican archives, material from two Rome trials in mid-1990s of former SS officer Erich Priebke, and other Italian archives Also uses the author's own research and interviews over many years with those involved Follows individual stories as well as the big picture; plenty of heroic as well as horrific incidents, partisan ambushes and terrible Nazi reprisals Quote from Pat Conroy: "Robert Katz has written a fascinating, illuminating and definitive history of the fall of Rome to the Allies in World War II. Fatal Silence tells us what the Germans were thinking, what the partisans were plotting, when the Allies were coming, and what the Pope was failing to do. It is a work both of great history and art."
Robert Katz is the author of nine works of non-fiction, including Death in Rome (published in nine countries) and Days of Wrath (about the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, the Italian statesman), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He now lives in Tuscany.
Robert Katz's moving account of Rome under Nazi occupation... cites new evidence indicating that Pius deliberately stifled even a mild but perfectly feasible protest in the case of the roundup. He also shows convincingly that there would have been no reprisal following a papal protest, and that the arrested Jews might have been saved by placing them in a forced labour scheme inside Italy... meticulous scholarship. - SUNDAY TIMES 9 November 2003 - John CornwellKatz brings the daily grind of the occupation vividly alive... he rescues forgotten stories of individual courage... Katz has a novelist's gift for narrative... this is popular history at its best, with its many strengths and occasional drawbacks. - NEW STATESMAN 13 October 2003The first book to draw on the intelligence files of the OSS (Office of Strategic Studies) - held secret by the successor agency, the CIA, until 2000 - as well as newly declassified documents from Italian and Vatican archives, the work is further enhanced by the author's interviews with survivors over many years. - THE UNIVERSE 12 October 2003
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